In a nod to Labor Day, film suggestions include serious, humorous looks at 9-to-5 world

Once upon a time, Labor Day meant the start of the school year, the end of the summer-movie
season and the final day on which white shoes were permitted to be worn.

Times have certainly changed.

Yet the Labor Day tradition, of course, continues.

The holiday, to be celebrated on Monday, is designed to honor American workers and the history
of the labor-union movement — which has undergone changes, too.

Still, the long weekend provides a perfect opportunity to observe the occasion by engaging the
DVD player and watching movies that pay tribute to the working classes.

The options are plentiful — from daffy comedies to politically charged union dramas, from silent
films to documentaries.

Here is a sampling of choices, all available online and on DVD:

Modern Times (1936)

The silent Charlie Chaplin classic — made, with typically Chaplinesque stubbornness, nine years
after the advent of sound — remains just as funny and comes with a surprising degree of political
bite. The famous factory-set scenes focus on the depersonalizing thrust of industrialization better
than any other film. And the sequence in which Chaplin picks up a red flag, which a highway crew
has dropped from its truck, and is mistaken for a communist agitator seems weirdly prescient
regarding his later experiences in 1950s Hollywood.

On the Waterfront (1954)

The history of unions in America runs side by side with the history of union corruption, with
the theme captured most richly by the Elia Kazan-

directed
On the Waterfront. It has a heartbreaking screenplay by Budd Schulberg and an
Oscar-winning performance by Marlon Brando as a longshoreman caught up in an investigation of mob
corruption on the New Jersey docks. Brando’s Terry Malloy, a not-so-bright ex-pug unable to come to
grips with his emerging sense of justice, is a high point in the annals of method acting.

Blue Collar (1978)

Three disgruntled autoworkers (Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto and Richard Pryor) decide to
burglarize their union office and, while inside, discover evidence of massive corruption. How can
they bring the culprits to justice without revealing their own culpability? The funny result
features a young, dynamic Pryor.

Norma Rae (1979)

Sally Field won her first best-actress Oscar for her performance as the title character, a wife,
mother and Alabama textile worker who, against her better judgment, becomes a leader in the effort
to unionize the factory where she works. Director Martin Ritt gives a strong sense of realism to
the film, inspired by a true story. Field, Beau Bridges and Ron Leibman — Bridges as Norma’s
husband, Leibman as an outside organizer — deliver impeccably tuned performances.

9 to 5 (1980)

More Americans today work in offices than in factories, and the workforce now includes almost as
many women as men. Colin Higgins’
9 to 5 was ahead of its time in addressing the new realities. Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and
Lily Tomlin play office workers who decide to deal with their obnoxious, bigoted, sexually
harassing boss (Dabney Coleman) in an unorthodox way — by kidnapping him. A big plus is the
memorable title song, written and sung by Parton.

Silkwood (1983)

blower who, in 1974, called public attention to serious safety problems at an Oklahoma nuclear
plant — and died suddenly under circumstances that remain mysterious. Director Mike Nichols and
screenwriters Alice Arlen and Nora Ephron pull no punches, and Cher revitalized her career with her
performance as Silkwood’s lesbian best friend.

Matewan (1987)

In what many consider his finest movie, indie writer- director John Sayles dramatizes a famous
1920 coal strike in West Virginia notable for the anger and violence on both sides of the struggle.
Sayles regulars Gordon Clapp, Chris Cooper, Mary McDonnell and David Strathairn are joined by Bob
Gunton and James Earl Jones in a large ensemble cast in which even the tiny parts are perfectly
played.

Roger & Me (1989)

Rarely has a labor controversy proved funnier than in Michael Moore’s debut film. A native of
Flint, Mich., Moore was scandalized by the effect of layoffs and auto-plant closings on his
hometown, and he resolved to confront General Motors CEO Roger Smith. His pursuit of a conversation
with Smith yields a documentary that is agonizing, moving, inspiring, heartbreaking and — most of
all — hilarious.

Hoffa (1992)

Arguably the most influential labor leader of the 20th century, Jimmy Hoffa of the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters was also the most controversial — during his lifetime and in the decades
that have followed his disappearance in 1975. In an Oscar-nominated performance, Jack Nicholson
doesn’t shy from the harsh and unpleasant realities of Hoffa’s work and, in particular, his deep
involvement with organized crime, but he also captures the teamster leader’s charisma and dogged
determination to improve the lives of the truckers who idolized him.

Office Space (1999)

Other than the comic strip Dilbert, no work of art has captured the mind-numbing realities of
office life so hysterically as Mike Judge’s live-action cartoon. Jennifer Aniston and Ron
Livingston star — with Gary Cole as the world’s most odious boss and Stephen Root as the ultimate
office drone — in the cult classic.

Bread & Roses (2000)

Ken Loach’s based-on-fact drama might be the best union movie ever made. Loach, a British
director known for strong leftist dramas set in his home country, went to California to make the
story of two Latina sisters (Pilar Padilla and Elpidia Carrillo) who, working as cleaning women in
the skyscrapers of Los Angeles, spearhead the Justice for Janitors unionization campaign. Adrien
Brody co-stars as a labor organizer.

North Country (2005)

Charlize Theron earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in a fictionalized retelling of
the events leading up to Jenson v. Eveleth Mines, the landmark 1984 case that established that
companies must protect female workers from harassment intended to drive them from the workplace. As
Josey Aimes, a single mother who goes to work in a Minnesota mine despite opposition from male
workers and even her own family, Theron is thoroughly convincing. Director Niki Caro creates a
strong sense of time and place.

Made in Dagenham (2010)

This technically isn’t a Labor Day movie, because it takes place in England, where the first
Monday in September is nothing more than, well, the first Monday in September. What could be more
American, though, than a strike against Ford Motors? Based on a famous strike in 1968, the film
stars Sally Hawkins as a worker at a Ford assembly plant in Dagenham, England, who finds herself a
leader in a landmark campaign for equal pay for female workers. The result is charming, inspiring
and surprisingly funny.